They know what to do when a man’s down in politics... and it isn’t pretty.

If anyone was tempted to think that local politics was a friendly little backwater compared to its Westminster counterpart, they should consider the last week in the life of Phil Bale.

The leader of Cardiff council has suffered the humiliation of seeing his spending plans for the coming year ripped apart and redrawn to appease his own backbenchers.

He’s had his leadership qualities, appearance and grip on city issues condemned by a city businessman whose organisation has received more than £1m in funding from Mr Bale’s own authority.

Game-playing

He’s seen his political opponents playing games all week to see who can come up with the most bombastic quote to ridicule his leadership.

And tonight, at a meeting of the full council, this will happen all over again as councillors debate a motion of no confidence that has seemed doomed to fail ever since the opposition members dreamed up this great kick-your-opponent-when-he’s-on-the-floor wheeze in the middle of last week’s budget-setting debate.

(I’ll have an exceedingly red face on Friday if the motion does pass – but right now it’s hard to believe that eight or more Labour councillors will vote against their own leader in an opposition motion when there is no alternative in place to succeed him).

Nope, city politics is just as messy, bitchy, fratricidal and just plain nasty as it is anywhere in the world.

It might be tempting to feel sorry for Phil Bale in these circumstances but, for all that he’s only been a councillor for coming up on three years, the 36-year-old would have known what he was letting himself in for.

Clout

Cardiff’s Labour group has been a prickly beast to lead for decades. If the giants of its recent history Jack Brooks and Russell Goodway managed it for such long stretches, it is because they had experience, clout and plain craftiness that a 36-year-old international relations graduate from Aberystwyth University was never going to learn in the six years he spent setting up and running a residents group in south London.

Plasterer’s son Brooks forged his dominant leadership style plastering, working in the docks and working his way up through the region’s Labour group to be leader of the old South Glamorgan council.

His successor, union official’s son Goodway had lived and breathed civic politics since he was a boy and learned more than a few tricks from his mentor, the now Lord Brooks.

You imagine that they might have had a few ideas what to do if a man like Nigel Roberts, the chairman of the city’s business council, whose organisation receives huge amounts of public funds and whose board is filled with council officers and the senior leaders of other public bodies, came out and criticised them in such a personal way.

Idealism isn't working

If the city’s more recent Labour leader Heather Joyce wasn’t exactly in the mould of her predecessors, she did at least have the most experienced members of her group – including Goodway – around her to advise her.

In contrast, Mr Bale has tried to sail above the fray with idealism and earnestness. And it isn’t working.

It’s like watching a heavily coached young team of junior rugby players, their heads full of training ground plays and techniques, coming up against a team of grizzled old boys with no intention of playing rugby and more than a few tricks up their sleeves.

Even if Mr Bale survives tonight, his future is still up in the air. Whatever his determination to continue, the battering he has suffered in the last week has damaged his standing.

For now he is still standing

It is hard to believe that some of his critics are not hard at work trying to canvass support for an alternative leader.

And it is unlikely that those efforts are limited to trying to persuade members of the Labour group on Cardiff council that there is an alternative to Mr Bale.

An intervention from a senior level in the Welsh Government could sway a lot of minds.

And yet, for now, Mr Bale is still standing. He seems insistent that the insults thrown his way will not deter him from remaining leader of the council.

Provided he survives this vote tonight, and he wants to continue, his future will depend on whether he can persuade his cabinet and enough members of his divided group that, even with the damage his reputation has suffered over the last week, he is still the best man to lead them – and better than anyone else with the bravery to put up their hand.

And if he can, even the earnest Mr Bale might feel the temptation to turn the tables on those who have criticised him, not least the chairman of the business council.